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Friday 19 November 1999 0:30am Y2K spells delays for Johnson & Johnson Two North American companies are already feeling the impact of the millennium bug over a month ahead of its strike date.

In the US, healthcare company, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) have filed a report with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) stating that it could experience a 10-day disruption to its business due to the bug. The company said problems will arise if too many of its key suppliers and customers are not yet year 2000 compliant.

Jeff Leebaw, director of corporate communications at J&J said this is purely a case of scare mongering. He insisted: "All companies have to place a report with the SEC but focus has been placed on us." Describing this situation as a worse case scenario, Leebaw did admit that contingency plans are in place for any mishaps that may take place.

Meanwhile, in Montreal, Canada, firefighters blame the city for one of their fire station burning down due to Y2K testing. Systems were turned off for a 48-hour period by the city so that they could be updated for the year 2000. However, breaker switches in some stations were not turned back on, giving no warning of a small fire that started in a station kitchen.

Robin Guenier, executive director at Taskforce 2000 said these are good examples of what can happen if the process isn't thought through properly. "People need to forget about the actual date change because as this proves it's happening now and it will happen after midnight 2000 as well," he said.

He advised companies not to relax once testing is complete because more problems may arise.

-- Uncle Bob (UNCLB0B@Tminus42&counting.down), November 19, 1999

Answers

Well here is the snip of the comment. I am afraid that Exxon beat J& amp;J by months.

This is third party stuff (not insignificant) but no admission by J& amp;J that  they will have failures for 10 days.

This is hype alright. That is why you never see time periods in SEC disclosures. Well Exxon did it. And they are just a tad bit bigger.

 JOHNSON & JOHNSON

 The  Company  believes that its most reasonably likely  "worst

case  scenario" would occur if a significant number  of& nbsp; its  key

suppliers  or  customers were not fully Year 2000 functional,  in

which  case  the Company estimates that up to a 10  business  day

disruption  in  business operations could  occur.& nbsp;  In  order  to

address  this  situation, the Company has formulated  contingency

plans  intended  to deal with the impact on the Company& nbsp; of  Year

2000  problems that may be experienced by such critical suppliers

-- Brian (imager@home.com), November 19, 1999.

talk about misleading garbage. did you really read this. the first line says two north american companies ALREADY ARE feeling the impact and then the author goes on to describe what they said in their SEC filing. makes me mad. this is an example of fearmongering from the media!

-- tt (cuddluppy@nowhere.com), November 19, 1999.

Perhaps it was a reference to Hershey and Whirlpool?

-- wondering what (it.is.all@about.com), November 19, 1999.

Since they are "North American" it certainly couldn't be in reference to the several baby corn companies operating in Thailand who are quite obviously in a mess of some kind.

Ooh the coming protests. And by the way I did pre-buy a protest sign. The other people will be holding signs demanding, "Bread!" "Milk!" or "Water!" Mine will read, "Smokes!" or "Pickled Baby Corn!" I hope I don't stand out too differently from "tah odders." I won't be needing milk, bread, or water. Smokes I've got but not my preferred brand. That's kind of a crises.

-- Paula (chowbabe@pacbell.net), November 19, 1999.